The unexpected and enduring success of the original SimCity, combined with the relative lack of success with other "Sim" titles, finally motivated the development of a sequel. SimCity 2000 was a major extension of the concept; the view was now dimetric instead of overhead, land could have different elevations, and underground layers were introduced for water pipes and subways.

The budget and finance controls are also much more elaborate—tax rates can be set individually for residential, commercial and industrial zones. Enacting city ordinances and connecting to neighboring cities became possible. The budget controls are very important in running the city effectively.

Another new addition in SimCity 2000 is the query tool. Using the query tool on tiles reveals information such as structure name and type, altitude, and land value. Certain tiles also display additional information; power plants, for example, display the percentage of power being consumed when queried, and querying roads displays the amount of traffic on that tile. Querying a library and selecting "Ruminate" displays an essay written by Neil Gaiman.[2]

Graphics were added for buildings under construction in the residential, commercial, and industrial zones, as well as darkened buildings depicting abandoned buildings as a result of urban decay.

News comes in the form of several pre-written newspaper articles with variable names that could either be called up immediately or could be subscribed to on a yearly basis. The newspaper option provided many humorous stories as well as relevant ones, such as new technology, warnings about aging power plants, recent disasters and opinion polls (highlighting city problems). SimCity 2000 is the only game in the entire series to have this feature (besides the discontinued children's version, SimTown), though newer versions have a news ticker. The newspapers had random titles (Times, Post, Herald, etc.), and prices based on the simulated year. Certain newspapers have a special monthly humor advice column by "Miss Sim". Some headlines have no purpose whatsoever in the game, such as "Bald Radio Found" or "Frog Convention".

Typical Infobox showing information about a selected element

Though there is no "true" victory sequence in SimCity 2000, the "exodus" is a close parallel. An "exodus" occurs during the year 2051 or later, when 300 or more Launch Arcologies are constructed; the following January each one "takes off" into space so that their inhabitants can form new civilizations on distant worlds.[3] This reduces the city's population to those who are not living in the Launch Arcologies, but it also opens wide areas for redevelopment and returns their construction cost to the city treasury. This is related to the event in SimEarth where all cities are moved into rocket-propelled domes that then leave to "found new worlds" (leaving no sentient life behind).

In 1994, Maxis released an expansion pack to SimCity 2000 called Scenarios Vol. I: Great Disasters, which included new scenarios based on a number of possible disasters. These disasters generally destroy the city and require the player to rebuild the city. They include: A UFO attack, two nuclear meltdown scenarios, two major chemical spill scenarios, a large flood, a major hurricane, two firestorm scenarios, a volcano, an earthquake, a high power microwave beam misfire, riots, and a typhoon.

Editing a building in the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit

Alongside the Great Disasters Scenarios package came the introduction of a separate toolset called the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (SCURK for short). It enabled players to modify the images used in-game to represent various buildings in much the same manner as general image manipulation software. The player was able to create basic bitmap files of a standard size with a standard 256 color palette. The use of limited palette cycling, which permitted animation, was also possible. A number of pre-altered graphics packages were distributed, including some which replaced the reward buildings with images of various well known international buildings, such as the Eiffel Tower, but most buildings were made by fan-artists and shared on the Internet. Several SCURK designs influenced the designs of SimCity 3000‍ '​s original buildings. The cities made in SCURK can be saved and used for SimCity 2000. SCURK would also pave way to a hobby of creating custom cities for SimCopter and Streets of SimCity.

A re-packaged version of SimCity 2000, SimCity 2000 Special Edition (also known as the CD Collection), was released in 1995 for Microsoft Windows and DOSPCs. In addition to containing All expansions, it also featured the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, the Vol. 1 scenario pack, remade music, new cities selected by Maxis from a 1994 competition, bonus scenarios and cities, and movies.[4]

The movies were a first for Maxis; SimCity 2000-SE was the first "Sim" game to feature "real" videos (compared to "animated bitmaps", such as the winning screen in SimAnt). These videos included the introduction movie and four commentary videos by Will Wright; the latter were accessed via the "WillTV" application that came with the game.

In December 2014 Electronic Arts offered SimCity 2000 Special Edition as a free download for an unspecified limited time. Unlike the original release versions of the game, this downloadable version requires connectivity to the Electronic Arts cloud for saves and gameplay.[5][6]

SimCity 2000 Network Edition, sometimes unofficially referred to as the "Gold Edition", was released in 1996 for Windows only. The game featured slightly different gameplay in network mode, where mayors may start with more money, but must buy land before building upon it. Players of the Network edition had the ability to share in-game resources and to compete or cooperate with other cities.

This version also features a revamped user interface. Instead of a static toolbar, items are accessed via cascading menus from the right of the screen, resulting in more screen real-estate for SimCity itself, without sacrificing functionality.

The first console version of the game, one of the first games announced for the Sega Saturn,[7] and one of the first titles for the American Sega Saturn, it was released in fall of 1995.

This version had several changes. The game has enhanced graphics for all buildings. The buildings will change at the year of 1950 and 2050. There are also 3D animations displayed for each building in the building query windows. The scenarios from the Great Disasters expansion packs are included.[8] The gameplay remains the same for the most part. Instead of the Braun Llama Dome, there is a Space Terminal which assist the launching of the Arco. The arco can be seen launching from the city along with a special animated video. There are several new animated videos. The opening sequence displays a scene of the Alien/Monster chasing a Launch Arco in space.

The PlayStation version of the game is based on the Saturn version, however with some features removed and others added. This version was released on the PlayStation Network in Europe for both PSP and PS3 on November 20, 2008 and in North America on Aug 28, 2009.

This version features the same graphics as the Saturn version, however the city does not evolve. The only additions are new scenarios from Great Disasters scenario pack, including one that involves a new volcano forming in Portland (destroying most of the city, and requiring the mayor to rebuild it). The Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. scenarios are on the disk but are not used.

The port also allows the player to tour their city from a car's perspective and has a full motion video intro. The graphics are identical to SimCopter.

A Japan-only release of SimCity 2000 for the Nintendo 64 in 1997, produced and published by Imagineer Co., Ltd.

It featured some additional features, mainly mini-games, a dating game, TV to replace the newspaper, horse races and monster breeding, among others, all of them in 3D. A few new "natural" disasters were also included, most of them being giant monster attacks (players were able to use their monster to fight against them).

Another Japan-only release, SimCity 64 was based on the SimCity 2000 game but was heavily customized for the Nintendo 64DD game system. The ability to view the city at night was added, pedestrian level free-roaming of a city, and individual road vehicles and pedestrians controlled by their own AI wandered the player's city. Cities in the game are also presented in much more advanced 3D graphics, making SimCity 64 the first true 3D SimCity game.

This was one of the first console ports of SimCity 2000. However, there were a lot of losses and differences from the original version.

The scrolling screen takes much longer to scroll. The in-game controls were modified. As in the previous SimCity title, there is no SNES Mouse support. Riots and volcanoes were removed. The game has fewer songs than the original PC version. Also, the SNES port omits the cheat codes, limits the city maps to six, has no difficulty setting and only includes five generic scenarios. There is only one newspaper for the whole city, no matter what size that the city is. In addition, the stock photographs were replaced with more Japanese anime/manga-like pictures. This is the only port of the game to feature such pictures. All team names, city names, and mayor names were limited to 8 characters, whereas the PC version allows for up to 32 characters. There are additional gifts: a bigger city hall at 1,000,000 population, a TV station at 2,000,000 population, and a rocket launching pad at 3,000,000 population. The player can see an actual launch of a single launch arco by achieving 5,000,000 population in the last scenario.

Released by Zoo Digital in 2003, SimCity 2000 for the Game Boy Advance featured most of the same content as previous versions, but several features are omitted, such as launch arcos. There is no water system, but it is unknown whether this was to make it a better portable experience or because of technical limitations.

SimCopter – An arcade helicopter flight simulator based on the cities of SimCity 2000, SimCopter was published in 1996. It had the capability of importing SimCity 2000 cities and allowing the user to pilot a helicopter around them and accomplish missions such as rescuing people or putting out a fire.

Famitsu magazine's Reader Cross Review gave the Super Famicom version of the game a 6 out of 10.[9]Sega Saturn Magazine gave the Saturn port an 86%, criticizing the slow scrolling in the Saturn version but applauding the game itself for its depth, realism, and addictiveness, calling it "one of the few games that appeals to just about everyone. It ... has the strange ability to convert full-time arcade shooter fans into around the clock urban planners with a sense of civic duty."[10] In 1996, Next Generation ranked it as the 33rd top game of all time for being "easily one of the most enthralling games playable."[11]